Twitter’s reality bites: Things are bad and will likely get worse

ANALYSIS: Trying to understand the state of Twitter’s business is a remarkably complicated affair. Which, given how bad things are, is probably not an accident.
On Thursday, the company reported no user growth during the second quarter and a 5 percent drop in revenue. Yet its earnings releases are filled with happy talk and rosy numbers, and its earnings call with analysts was peppered with optimism.
You have to listen hard, and squint mightily, to discover the reality, whic